Creating Texas

If you found the History Channel's Texas Rising Series interesting, you'll want to round out your understanding of Texas history with Creating Texas. It's history that mesmerizes.

Even today, countless people at large believe there were no survivors of the Battle of the Alamo. This book goes beyond simple documentation to dispel some myths and clarify some of the realities. The authors don't decorate or revise history but rather try to illuminate it, and to show not the shadow but the substance of the subject. Seldom-addressed facts, details and vignettes are woven into the tapestry of the text to tell the entire story of the Texas Revolution, which had its own sweeping and extensive aftermath. In the attempt to pierce the armor and enter the sanctum of early 19th-century personality and character, this book also includes biographical sketches of the major and minor participants - key foreground players as well as everyday background folks, on both sides of this monumental struggle. A special section is devoted to the three most iconic Alamo defenders, often referred to collectively as "The Alamo's Holy Trinity": William Barret Travis, the garrison's 26-year-old commander; David Crockett, one of the oldest combatants to die in the battle; and James Bowie, perhaps the most misunderstood of all Alamo defenders, and a classic, enduring historical example of the common trap in which an exception becomes the rule. As prophets aren't appreciated in their own lands, none of these three men were native to the area but each has become legendary. Those who were part of the Texas Revolution - brave people, young and old, and on both sides of the conflict, who lived and suffered through it and others who died during it - were as alive then as we are today.

Jeffrey Dane (1943-2015) was a music historian, researcher, journalist, essayist and author. Born in New York, he studied at the Juilliard School (composition) with Stanley Wolfe, Peter Schickele, and Hall Overton. His chamber music has been performed at New York University on commission from the American Music Festival. He has lived in Europe where he spent time in several of the continent's musical centers, and has researched in Germany (Leipzig and Weimar), Switzerland (Zürich), and Austria (Salzburg, Bad Ischl, Gmunden, Baden, Mrzzuschlag, and Vienna, his favorite city). He had a genuine passion for music, its composers, practitioners, history, and literature. He fully acknowledged (and made no apologies for) a marked tendency to develop an almost emotional attachment to the composers, living or not, whose music he studied. His book, Beethoven's Piano, was published by New York's Museum of the American Piano. He contributed to the following books: Leonard Bernstein - A Life by Meryle Secrest (Alfred Knopf, New York, 1994), to The Composer In Hollywood by Christopher Palmer (Marion Boyars Publishers, London, 1991), to the college textbook Listening To Music by Dr. Jay Zorn (Prentice Hall, New York, 1995), and to Reflections '97 by Basil Tschaikov & Jon Tolansky (Musical Performance Research Centre, Harwood Academic Publishers, London, 1997). As a historian, and as a relaxing diversion from the norm of routine, he travelled widely and researched and wrote articles having a non-musical focus, on subjects ranging from Goethe to George Washington, antiques, travel, the Alamo and other historic structures (including the Brahms Museum in Mrzzuschlag, Austria, and Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum, whose Curator he interviewed and of whom he wrote a profile), essays on the relationships between the independent and the academic scholar, articles about the practical and conceptual difficulties authors face today, and a historical perspective of James Bowie.

ROD TIMANUS was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, raised in Cutler Ridge, Florida and currently resides in Glendale, Arizona. He served in the U.S. Army Infantry in Viet Nam and Germany from 1968 to 1971 as a Grenadier, an Operations Sergeant and Mechanized Infantry Squad Leader. He holds an Associate's degree in Commercial Art from Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Connecticut, a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from Paier College of Art in Hamden, Connecticut and a Certificate in Illustration from the Comic Art Workshop. His artwork, maps and diagrams have appeared in several books, including Eyewitness to the Alamo, Battlefields of Texas and Death of a Legend by Bill Groneman (Republic of Texas Press) and The Alamo Story by J.R. Edmondson (Republic of Texas Press). His work has also appeared in The Alamo Almanac and Book of Lists and The Davy Crockett Almanac and Book of Lists by William R. Chemerka (Eakin Press). He has contributed cover art, illustrations, and written articles for The Alamo Journal, official publication of The Alamo Society. From that career he began to write and illustrate his own books about the Old West. Rod retraced the last journeys of David Crockett, from Rutherford, Tennessee to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer from Fort Lincoln, North Dakota to the Little Bighorn valley in Montana. On the Crockett Trail (Pioneer Press) is a history/travel book released in November of 1999, On the Custer Trail (Pioneer Press) was released in 2001, in time to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Also in 2001, An Illustrated History of Texas Forts (Republic of Texas Press) was released. Additionally, On the Lewis and Clark Trail (Pioneer Press), a retracing of the 1804-1806 expedition through the Louisiana Territory, was released in January 2003. He wrote and illustrated The Alamo entry for the 4-volume encyclopedia Americans at War (Macmillan Publishing) released in 2005 and, until his move to Arizona, wrote and illustrated monthly history articles for The Middletown Press newspaper in Middletown, Connecticut. After relocating to Arizona he contributed sixteen entries to the two-volume The Settlement of America: Encyclopedia of Westward Expansion (M.E. Sharpe) released in 2011 and had articles appear in The Wild West Gazette, The Tombstone Times, and The Arizona Republic newspapers. Additionally, he wrote the article I am Doc Holliday for The American Cowboy magazine online edition. In 2014, Creating Texas a Brief History of the Revolution (Lauric Publishing), coauthored by the late Jeffrey Dane (1943-2015), was published, and named the winner of the 2014 Elmer Kelton Nonfiction Book Award presented by the Academy of Western Artists. The same year, Montezuma Castle National Monument (Arcadia Publishing) was released. He wrote the text for Kazu, a book of fine art photography by the late Kazu Okutomi (1939-2016), in 2015. In 2017, Tuzigoot National Monument (Arcadia Publishing) was released as a companion volume to the Montezuma Castle book. He designed the covers for all but three of his Western History books, the exceptions being for Republic of Texas Press and Arcadia Publishing, plus the covers for And .... Action! by Stephen Lodge (Mirage Books) and Apache Tears by Stoney Livingston (Chokonen Press). In 2021, he completed writing and illustrating his first Western fiction novel, The Penitent Gun. He is a member of The Western Writers of America and The Arizona Historical Society.

Margaret Eden is an editor and author. She's written both fiction and nonfiction books, and articles for Woman's World and Aspire magazines. She's served as editor-in-chief for the University of North Texas academic publications, InHouse, and The North Texan. She's also served as the editorial services manager for the Society of Petroleum Engineers producing six peer-reviewed, scholarly journals, and more than 25 peer-reviewed textbooks. Jane serves as vice president of Lauric Enterprises, Inc. for more than 25 years. Lauric produces books, dvds, and seminars on self-defense and provides training to military, police, and citizens in high-risk professions in nine allied countries. She also writes and edits for SLB (formerly Schlumberger).